Mistranslations

What do you think of the translations in anime?

Total Votes:

[ 0 ]

This poll closed on May 30, 2004.
No longer accepting new votes.

[Mutz]

I like watching a lot of anime, but it upsets me at how often companies will overtranslate or completely change what is being said. I'm not hurt much by it because I speak Japanese,ust wondering, does it bother you that translations you are buying might not be as accurate as they could be?

[Vadalios]

Not really. I consider the Japanese and it's translated counterpart to be two separate things. What I take from the translated version is true for the translated version and so- it's not a problem (I'm specifically thinking about quotes that I use as "evidence" for yaoi pairings. People say "that's not what he said in the original version" but like I said, I'm using evidence from the translation, which I consider different)

But some translation errors do bother me. It's not anime but in the manga of Naruto, my friend pointed out that VIZ changed something (which was probably because of what was actually said and not an error) The main character was just told that the girl he was talking to was actually a crossdressing boy. In the Japanese version he says "He's even cuter than Sakura" (Sakura is a girl he's got a crush on) but in the translated version he says "He's even girlier than Sakura" However, the manga's aimed at 9-14 year old boys so I can see why they changed it.

[Mutz]

Hm, good point 3nodding

[Alyssa DarkCloud]

actually, compared to older translations, most of the ones out today are pretty good. however, there still are bad ones that have recently come out. the subtitles to king of bandit jing, the official US dvds, are horrid and are totally BS'd. however it doesn't really effect me either way either because i speak japanese as well. the only thing that bugs me is someone is getting paid for doing translations that seem like a 2nd year japanese student did stressed .

[Dragon Caesar]

I think it's really frustrating when companies pull up scripts for dubbed versions of the anime and then just use captions of those scripts as subtitles for the Japanese version, even though the two are completely different xp

[SuperUmeMan]

Wow, things in this forum don't move too fast, huh. I saw this thread earlier today and it's still on the top page sweatdrop

[Weizkruz]

IMO i still prefer subs rather than Dubs.

it's not just the translation. but it's also the voice acting that really bothers me. some can be over exagerated. but there are others that just don't put enough effort into the character to make them sound appealing. stare

[Vadalios]

Weizkruz

IMO i still prefer subs rather than Dubs.

it's not just the translation. but it's also the voice acting that really bothers me. some can be over exagerated. but there are others that just don't put enough effort into the character to make them sound appealing. stare

I go both ways on this issue. There are some characters who I would shudder to hear in English, just because I've fallen in love with thier Japanese voice (Akito from Fruits Basket and, to a lesser extent, Dilandau from Escaflowne) but there are a lot of great voice actors in the dubs to (the masked guy from Gundam SEED (I think his name is Something Kluze) and Tsume from Wolf's Rain) So both the dub and the subs have their highlights for me.

But I do hate it when they leave things out. Like Farfarello from Weiss Kreuz. He's my favorite character and he had a kick a** Xena-like warrior cry in one battle. They didn't even need to translate it since it was just yelling but it got changed for the English version...

[EmilyBee]

Well you have to consider like, for instance, in the english language...

There are some word in Japanese that are longer then english words, while some words in english are longer then the Japanese equlient(spelling?). Then if the character mouths enough for 6 japanese words, when translated the translators may find for the english verison The character may only need to mouth 3 words to say the same thing... That means they have to invent two words to fill in the two words missing, hence why sentance get altered...

Also, sometimes english is complex, Most languages write 'To the cinema we went' while english write 'we went to the cinema'. Plus also we have words that mean the same such as Tiny, little, small, miniture, puny etc that are so simulair its hard to pick out which one matches best.

[Weizkruz]

Vadalios

Weizkruz

IMO i still prefer subs rather than Dubs.

it's not just the translation. but it's also the voice acting that really bothers me. some can be over exagerated. but there are others that just don't put enough effort into the character to make them sound appealing. stare

I go both ways on this issue. There are some characters who I would shudder to hear in English, just because I've fallen in love with thier Japanese voice (Akito from Fruits Basket and, to a lesser extent, Dilandau from Escaflowne) but there are a lot of great voice actors in the dubs to (the masked guy from Gundam SEED (I think his name is Something Kluze) and Tsume from Wolf's Rain) So both the dub and the subs have their highlights for me.

But I do hate it when they leave things out. Like Farfarello from Weiss Kreuz. He's my favorite character and he had a kick a** Xena-like warrior cry in one battle. They didn't even need to translate it since it was just yelling but it got changed for the English version...

Gundam SeeD char = Raul La Kruz
and yes i can understand that in terms.
but still. imo most anime's i've seen or heard has had no feeling to their voices giving the character a less appealing personality.

as for Dilandau. i don't mind him as much .. but i was a lil annoyed to find out he was Allen's sister. eek which really could have thrown off alot of viewers that weren't prepared for such .. ... plot? ... which is sort of terrible because even with a suprise twist they should have finished the storyline where as that they stopped it with the excuse of saying kids didn't understand the story. when really they don't want to show the world that some guys lil sister had a sex change.

[EmilyBee]

I forgot to mention something in my last post.

Translators also tend to translate things with the 'tongue in cheek' method in mind... In short they take the micky out of the program they are translating...

A good example was this male striping programing (no I didn't watch this, my mother did and used to talk about it in the mornig after it showed) in germany... The german verison was very serious, but when the series got translated to english, where it had been meant to be a dead serious program it became a total micky take... Apparently none of the Voice actors even tried to take their work seriously...

this saem thing happens with anime... I once watch the Thunder Prince... You cannot tell me that was translated seriously... stare

[Vadalios]

Weizkruz

Vadalios

Weizkruz

IMO i still prefer subs rather than Dubs.

it's not just the translation. but it's also the voice acting that really bothers me. some can be over exagerated. but there are others that just don't put enough effort into the character to make them sound appealing. stare

I go both ways on this issue. There are some characters who I would shudder to hear in English, just because I've fallen in love with thier Japanese voice (Akito from Fruits Basket and, to a lesser extent, Dilandau from Escaflowne) but there are a lot of great voice actors in the dubs to (the masked guy from Gundam SEED (I think his name is Something Kluze) and Tsume from Wolf's Rain) So both the dub and the subs have their highlights for me.

But I do hate it when they leave things out. Like Farfarello from Weiss Kreuz. He's my favorite character and he had a kick a** Xena-like warrior cry in one battle. They didn't even need to translate it since it was just yelling but it got changed for the English version...

Gundam SeeD char = Raul La Kruz
and yes i can understand that in terms.
but still. imo most anime's i've seen or heard has had no feeling to their voices giving the character a less appealing personality.

as for Dilandau. i don't mind him as much .. but i was a lil annoyed to find out he was Allen's sister. eek which really could have thrown off alot of viewers that weren't prepared for such .. ... plot? ... which is sort of terrible because even with a suprise twist they should have finished the storyline where as that they stopped it with the excuse of saying kids didn't understand the story. when really they don't want to show the world that some guys lil sister had a sex change.

Thanks for the name. My friends and I just generally call him The Masked Childmolester (for both the fact that, despite his voice being awesome, it has a certain childmolster quality to it and, being that we're yaoi fangirls... we're pretty sure the pilots of Zaft are just his boy harem...) And I still call the blonde guy "Moo" so I really need to figure out how to say those names right (though nicknames are so much more fun...)

I'm ok with Dilandau's English voice, I just like his Japanese one much more. I think it portrayed his insanity, anguish, and dependence better... But, surprisingly, I was prepared for the plot twist. As soon as Allen had his first couple of flashbacks of his sister and my mind went "Wait a sec... that looks a lot like..." I went on the net and, sure enough, he's Celena. I'm not happy about the change though... can't have yaoi with a girl crying

[pinkfluffymarshmallofiend]

the translations are pretty decent

[animated_kiwi]

The translations in the manga are decent. But the translations on dubbed anime are terrible!

[Kellogs]

i never noticed it xd